19,301 uncollected voting documents so far

Michael Seychell

Jun 3rd 2009, 15:23

The comment by Ramon Casha is very valid. Once voting documents can be left at a residence by being handed to any person who may happen to open the door, even if this happens to be a visitor or an employee of those living in that residence, simirarly any person presenting his own ID Card and that of the owner/s of the voting document, should be enough.

After all records will show that the voting document pertaining to Mr ABC whose I.D. number is 123456789 has been collected by Ms XYZ whose ID No is 112233445566, or whatever in both cases, and any abuses of the system will be considered as a criminal act .

This suggestion should be included in the parlamentary committee dealing with election legislation and procedures, which discussions should be concluded before the next general election.

jennifer muscat

Jun 3rd 2009, 13:52

@ l galea's " Can our government be so lackey as to obey the eu's orders to the letter?", referring to the noon start of sorting. As far as i know, that has always been around the time when the sorting starts anyhow, and sometimes even later. so what s the big deal?? let us hope that they do manage to start by then, and not later, as the opening of the boxes, and the bundling of the votes face down takes quite a long time usually, but probably more so due to the length of the ballot paper this time round.

Ramon Casha

Jun 3rd 2009, 12:45

Perhaps the number of uncollected documents would be reduced if one did not have to call personally to collect them from the police station. It doesn't really make sense to give the documents to any resident while distributing them door to door, but then require each individual to collect it personally if there happened to be nobody home at the exact moment when the police come round.

lgalea

Jun 3rd 2009, 12:35

2.
"But the article in question says that member states are not allowed to publish official results. In our view, this doesn't prevent the publication of preliminary results." Mr Brandveldt said that the Hague and Brussels were currently in discussions over the matter, but the debate is likely to conclude after the end of poling in the country...The Netherlands in the 2004 elections bucked the EU law and released its official results early, citing transparency imperatives...The commission at the time declined to issue an official rebuke. But the Dutch move was seen then as now as harmful to EU attempts to engender a sense of common European identity by organising one big-bang election result. The UK, also voting on 4 June, intends to abide by the EU law. But broadcast media are expected to publish exit polls within minutes of British polling stations closing, at around 11 p.m. Brussels time....Cyprus, Italy, Latvia and Malta vote on 6 June, with Italy's vote also spread over two days. Exit polls are likely to come out in Cyprus at 7 p.m. Brussels time on 6 June. But the other three will keep results quiet....

lgalea

Jun 3rd 2009, 12:33

"The actual sorting according to first preferences starts on Sunday at noon as agreed across the EU so that no results are issued before voting closes in all countries where the EP
elections are being held."
Can our government be so lackey as to obey the eu's orders to the letter?

http://euobserver.com/9/28225
Netherlands to release EU election results early
02.06.2009 @ 17:29 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Despite EU officials' best efforts to maintain suspense about who has won the European elections until all European polling stations close on Sunday (7 June) evening, results will begin dribbling out as early as 4 June. Under EU law it is illegal to announce official results until all EU voting ends at 10 p.m. Brussels time on Sunday, but the Netherlands - which together with the UK is the first EU member state to vote - intends to release preliminary results as soon as its polls close at 9 p.m. Brussels time on 4 June. "There are different views on this matter," Ruben Brandveldt of the Dutch mission to the EU told EUobserver. "The European Commission is not happy because we will be releasing the results."